JOSEPH PARISH

Alias:

Specialties: BANK SNEAK, BURGLAR, PENNYWEIGHT, PICKPOCKET, SLEEPING-CAR WORKER

No: 84 Last Displayed: 11/1/2023

Description:

Forty-six years old in 1886. Born in Michigan. An artist by trade. Married. Stout build. Height, 5 feet 7 inches. Weight, 164 pounds. Hair black, mixed with gray; bluish-gray eyes; large and prominent features; dark complexion. Generally wears a full, dark-brown beard, cut short. High, retreating. forehead. High cheek bones and narrow chin.

Record:

JOE PARISH is a Western pickpocket and general thief, and is one of the most celebrated criminals in America. He has been actively engaged in crooked work for the last twenty-five years, and if all his exploits were written up they would astonish the reader. In his time he is said to have had permission to work in many of the large cities in the West. He attempted to ply his vocation in New York City a few years ago, but was ordered to leave the city. Several Southern cities have suffered from his depredations. He is said to have been with General Greenthal and his gang, who were arrested at Syracuse, N. Y., on March 11, 1877, for robbing a man at the railroad depot there out of $1,190, on March 1, 1877. Parish is well known in Chicago, Ill., where he has property and a wife and family of three girls and one boy. He at one time kept a large billiard parlor in Davenport, Iowa, but, being crooked, he was driven out of the town. He was finally arrested in Chicago, Ill., on February 13, 1883, and delivered to the chief of police of Syracuse, N.Y. He was taken there, and sentenced to eight years in Auburn prison, N. Y., on April 29, 1883, for robbing one Delos S. Johnson, of Fabius, N. Y., on the Binghamton road. Parish's picture is an excellent one, taken in May, 1883.